Photographs of before and afters allow you to highlight the difference your product makes in the lives of your customers. They serve as a visual testimonial of what you can accomplish for the consumer as a company.

If you aren’t already using some form of visual content marketing, you’re missing out. Most people skim over the text on a page, reading only 20 to 28 percent of the words. However, a visual makes an impression in milliseconds, so adding before and afters makes a quick impact on your target audience.

Other reasons your site needs before and afters include the following.

1. Earn Social Media Attention

There are about 1.96 billion people on social media. Although not everyone will be interested in your product, a portion will be. Before and after photos give you the opportunity to showcase what your company can do on social media. The side-by-side look at before and after is a powerful testimony about your brand.

2. Give Customers Creative Ideas

Before and after photos can help your target audience be more creative in the ways they utilize your product. For example, if you sell a home improvement product, you may offer a lot of different options for the homeowner. By providing before photos of how bad a home looked and after photos of how fresh and new it is, you also offer ideas for how the customer can apply your product in the best way.

Take a look at how Global Home Improvement integrates before and after photos to show what adding new windows to your home can do for your home’s overall curb appeal and interior design. Some of the photos are quite dramatic, showing a home go from outdated and drab to modern and amazing.

3. Provide Weekly Reveals

You can create a lot of excitement by doing a weekly reveal of results as time passes. This strategy works particularly well for sites that focus on weight loss or other big image changes that take time to accomplish.

For example, if you sold a weight loss product or service, you would ask one of your customers to share weekly photos of their progress. You would then do a weekly or even monthly photo reveal of the results. This method can get other users excited about what’s possible with your product.

4. Showcase Inspirational Results

Another way to utilize before and afters is by sharing dramatic photos that show inspirational results. The best photos to use in these cases are ones that show a dramatic difference. If the difference is only slight, then the before and afters might not translate as well for the first-time site visitor. On the other hand, if the results are dramatic, that same visitor will be wowed. Online before and after photos are one of the top things that inspire people to lose weight.

Take a look at the dramatic before and after photos used on the Anderson Dental website. In the first image, the person’s teeth are yellowed and uneven. In the second image, the teeth are white, straight and nearly perfect. This type of dramatic imagery shows potential patients what the dentist can do for them as well.

5. Excel in Your Industry

Some industries lend themselves to before and after photos more so than others. However, any type of business can utilize before and afters. If you sell a weight loss product, provide medical procedures or complete home improvement projects, before and after photos may seem almost integral to your website. Other industry experts who might benefit from before and afters include website designers showing a site before and after fixing it.

Another idea is to dig a bit deeper and provide customer testimonials and case studies that highlight just what your business can accomplish for customers. Sometimes, the before and after photo will be obvious, such as showing the improvement in a newsletter’s format. But sometimes it won’t be as obvious, such as displaying a simple photo of a happy consumer after your company has helped them.

6. Create a Connection

Before and after photos can help forge a connection with the consumer. People tend to look at photos and put themselves in the same situation as the people in them. This process creates an instant connection between your website and the consumer, allowing the potential client to see how your product might work for him.

Merrie’s Organizing Mania features photos of homes before the organizer began her work and after. This side-by-side shows a dramatic difference in cluttered garages and rooms in the home. Imagery like this shows the consumer what the service might do for their home as well. It allows them to picture how their house might look after being organized.

7. Gain Interest

Without visuals, your website can turn pretty bland. Visual elements enable the consumer to skim and still gain valuable insight without stopping and reading every bit of text on the page. Before and after photos add a lot of interest to your website and give the user something to share with others.

Should You Add Before and Afters?

Whether before and afters work best for your site or not is ultimately up to you and based on what your site visitors respond to, but most people find them helpful. Look for creative ways to show off what your business provides. Even if you share only one or two before and afters, they’ll act as a testimony to just what you’re capable of accomplishing for consumers.